MEXICO CITY ? Following a solid ? if beaten and battered ? performance at his first debate, the presidential frontrunner from Mexico?s major opposition party, Enrique Pena Nieto, survived his biggest test yet, showing Mexican voters the telegenic former governor could think on his feet and defend himself and party against charges of corruption and cronyism.
Going into Sunday night?s debate, analysts said that the only way for Pena Nieto?s three challengers to really shake his 20-point lead in the polls, would be for polished and well-scripted Pena Nieto to fumble in a spectacular way ? to draw a blank on an answer, for example, as Texas Gov. Rick Perry did in the Republican presidential debate when speaking of which three federal agencies he would eliminate.
It didn?t happen. Pena Nieto of Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, survived, even as he was called a liar and a fraud by Josefina Vazquez Mota of the ruling conservative National Action Party (PAN) and leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador from the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD).
?Why do the people who really control the country want Pena Nieto to be president?? said Lopez Obrador, during the two-hour televised debate. ?The answer is obvious ? they want to continue with their policies of pillage.?
Vazquez Mota, who if elected would be Mexico?s first female president, held up an Economist magazine profile of Pena Nieto that she said charged that he had reported misleading figures about his crime fighting successes while governor of the state of Mexico.
?There are two ways of lying,? Vazquez Mota said. ?One is not telling the truth and the other is making up numbers.?
In another demonstration, Lopez Obrador held up a photograph of Pena Nieto with former president Carlos Salinas of the PRI party, an unpopular figure whose administration was tainted by charges of corruption.
?Who is Enrique Pena Nieto, really?? Lopez Obrador asked. At another point, Lopez Obrador said a return to power by the PRI ? which ruled Mexico for more than 70 years, until 2000 ? would bring ?pure lies and pure insecurity? to Mexico.
While he defended himself against allegations of wrongdoing, Pena Nieto also got in some punches of his own. ?They're coming with knives sharpened,? Pena Nieto said of his challengers.
Speaking of the current administration of President Felipe Calderon and his PAN party, Pena Nieto described the country?s economic performance as the worst in 80 years.
?I propose changing fear for hope,? Pe�a Nieto said. ?I propose changing Mexico.?
Jorge Chabat, a professor at the International Center for Investigations, in an online opinion forum compared the debate to a soccer match, with Pena Nieto playing goalie and his opponents kicking balls at him, trying to score.
Chabat said Vazquez Mota fired shots, warning viewers that the states controlled by the PRI party were beset by corruption, murder, femicide, debt and violence.
Speaking directly to the cameras and not to each other, in a television studio without an audience, the four candidates were asked about security and the economy from a list of published questions.
Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=db3501b14f54295c7a83fe91a08c96f1
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